Electric Lady
by AravaT
Summary: AU. Set Pre-Season 1. A younger, more reckless Kate Beckett wants to throw caution and restraint to the wind and enjoy a night out, she wants to forget the anchors that drown her. Richard Castle, recently divorced single father, is desperate for distraction and inspiration. Inspired by songs by JT.
1. What Goes AroundComes Around

**A/N: I've been playing with this idea in my head forever so I figured I would see how it goes. Each chapter will match up with a song, mostly songs by Justin Timberlake.**

**Background: Richard Castle is 30 years old, his daughter Alexis is 6, he is in the middle of Derek Storm. Post-Meredith, Pre-Gina. Kate Beckett is 24 (Yes, I know it doesn't match the timeline in the show but I'm taking creative liberties), neck deep in an obsession with her mother's unsolved murder and her father's addiction, Post-Will.**

**Please listen to the song that goes with each chapter. **

**Song: watch?v=DPKglboFfuU**

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**What Goes Around... Comes Around**

Rick hates this night, absolutely detests, utterly despises, holds unbridled disdain for it.

Some of his idiot buddies, who incessantly ride his coat tails, thought that taking Rick out on the town would cheer up his gloomy, pathetic ass. And by taking him out, they meant Rick would be getting them into the clubs and opening a tab on his dollar. Yeah, super great friends- the type of friends Rick wants to have a fight club kind of thing with.

But, never the less, Rick put on the cheesy bachelor smile and played his part of suave, care-free ladies man. It beat sitting at home avoiding writing like it was the clap and swimming in his self-loathing. _What the fuck happened to me? _Rick thinks to himself.

However, Rick could only take so much of that annoying fake giggle from women with zero ambition and lewd _bro-talk_ that dismantles and destroys the English language. So he snuck off, away from his drunk parasitic "friends" and the horde of whores, _Ha, pretty funny __alliteration_, Rick applauds himself. He is now sitting at the far corner of the bar, hidden from sight by the separating wall of the first booth, nursing a double of whiskey. Apparently swimming in self-loathing was still on the itinerary for tonight.

He feels as though every time there is a reprieve in distraction his brain runs through his list of failures, which has grown to be fairly extensive in the last year: Cheated on by his wife, divorced by his wife, mother moved back in- that may be the most humiliating of them all. And most recently, he had been broken up with by his ex-wife... Yes, the one that cheated on him and divorced him. _Pathetic._

Meredith had come back into town for a court ordered visit to see Alexis. The fact that she had to be ordered by the court to visit her child should have been the red flag that halted is idiotic, optimistic imagination. But nope, he was so desperate on behalf of Alexis to have Meredith be at least the image of an caring mother that Rick even paid for her plane ticket and let her stay at his loft. Mistakes number two and three.

Mistake number one, is reserved for marrying such a careless, inconsiderate bitc-..._ She's the mother of your child, she's the mother of your child, she's the mother of your child_.. inconsiderate _woman_.

But the fourth mistake, the one that has him in the dark corner of a club ordering a bottle of $220 Macallan Fine Oak Scotch Whiskey for himself, was sleeping with said careless, inconsiderate bitch, Y_eah I said it. The mother of my beautiful, sweet daughter is a total bitch._

Meredith spent a week at the loft, things seemed to easily fall back into the ways of their glory days, at least that's what Rick thought.

By the second night Rick felt like they were an actual family as he called his girls for the dinner he made and Mere and Alexis painted each other's toenails.

By late on the third night wine had loosened Rick's tongue and erased his good judgement it seems since he found himself in bed with Meredith.

On the fourth morning Meredith told him that she missed him and missed being a family. They made a smiley pancake breakfast together for Alexis.

The fifth day, made Rick think that all the grief of the divorce was for nothing as he and Meredith held hands through Central Park and the zoo while Alexis bounced on his shoulders.

The sixth day, that's where the shit hit the fan so to speak. It was the day that Rick realized that he and Meredith were not getting back together, they would never be a family, and, in a funny twist of irony, she was actually cheating on her boyfriend when she slept with Rick. _Gee isn't that swell!__  
_

_"Ricky baby, it was a fun week, but it wasn't real. I was just playing the part," _she said on the seventh morning. "_Im an actress it's what I do. Its not my fault you let your little imagination run away with you."_

So thats his summary of a heartbreaking week which ended with him _still_ being a 30-year-old divorcee, single dad to a 6 year old girl, and living with his mother. Only now he just has more baggage... _Talk about forward progress! Damn I'm getting cynical. _Rick pours himself another glass of amber liquid and swivels around on his bar stool, seeking out distraction for his own narrative and using his "little imagination" (and rugged good looks) to forget Meredith ever existed.

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**A/N: Thanks for reading. Hope you like it and will review.**


	2. Tunnel Vision

**A/N: Had to edit this when I heard a song by JT that fit this better. Sorry for breaking up the chapters, but I added a little bit more to this one to make up so please read it and review! Hope you're liking what I've got going on here.**

**Song: "Tunnel Vision" Justin Timberlake, watch?v=b815U7xYD0U**

Rick's eyes roam around the packed club, he can't help but picture the mob of swinging hips on the dance floor as a little can of sardines._ Damn this whiskey must be getting to me._

A half hour has passed and his wild imagination has successfully diverted his mind from the spiral of self-pity he had going earlier. Rick has come up with stories about the massive, intimidating bouncer who, Rick believes, is using his pay checks to pay for ballet lessons in pursuit of his life long dream of performing as Lieutenant Pinkerton in a performance of _Madame Butterfly. _Rick also played out the story of the douche bag stockbroker, who is attempting to cheat on his wife. However, according to Rick, the stockbroker soon learns his lesson when he unsuspectingly brings a tranny back to his hotel room and gets a nice surprise when he slides a hand up the gentleman's skirt. That one gave Rick a good laugh,_ Cheaters never prosper...well except for my ex-wife. She is prospering quite a bit off our divorce,_ Rick thinks bitterly.

But he strangles that thought and scans across the dance floor seeking out another poor bastard that will be the victim of his over active imagination. Rick's sea blue eyes bounce and trip across the dance floor back and forth, moving from far to near, until they suddenly they lock on the most beautiful sight he has ever seen. Rick doesn't even realize he is staring, like his eyes were magnetically drawn to her long wavy hair, dark haunted eyes, somberly frowned pouty lips. They greedily take in the goddess before him as his brain plays catch up, rushing to find adjectives that fit her never-ending legs, luscious lower lip that is tucked neatly under her teeth, the tight, deep purple dress that hugs her body and gently flares out to mid thigh. She is making her way towards him with confident, sure strides that calls the attention of everyone around her. Every man and woman she passes looks at her, yet Rick feels like not one of them actually see her because if they had they would never let her walk right by without begging for her company.

As this stunning mirage of a woman is oblivious to Rick, she becomes his sole focus. He can't take his eyes off her. His field of vision narrows and all he sees is her, every aspect of this stranger is a mural painted across his imagination, yet somehow she is an enigma begging to be found, discovered, investigated. His tunneled vision burns into her dark, molten eyes and even from a distance he can see the long sweep of lashes and smokey make-up that paints a mask to hide her emotions. Stories and histories and possibilities race through his body as he tries to read the look in her eyes, the motion of her body, the curls in her hair.

He is in a crowded room but this one woman tells more stories with her eyes than the written biographies of every other occupant of the club. He has tunnel vision for this woman and everything in his sight is absolutely intoxicating and enrapturing because all he sees is her as everything else just disappears. He is captivated.

The goddess of a women skirts around a grinding couple in graceful movements and just her walk is an alluring dance, a graceful ballet that Brian the Bouncer Ballerina wouldn't have a chance at being in because the way this woman shifts her hips and points her toes with each casual step is a work of art that should never be corrupted.

She is getting closer to Rick and his mouth has gone completely dry as he gapes. As a _writer_, his mind frantically narrates the image that plays before, attempting to capture it; but as a _man_, his slacks tighten and he imagines every way he could touch her and learn the swaying dance of her body. She is now about four feet away and headed directly in his direction, Rick's heart pounds in anticipation.

But wait no, she turns and slumped into the booth that Rick has been using as camouflage the whole night, out of Rick's sight but certainly not out of his mind. He strains to hear her over the pulsing music, desperate to add another component to this hauntingly remarkable woman.

He only hears one sentence before the beat of the music picks up and obscures the rest of her honey-sweetened voice.

"Lanie, no offense, but this girl's night out plan to cheer us up is a catastrophe."

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**Review! xoxo**


	3. Losing My Way

**A/N: So I should just say that I have no one editing this with me and I am the world's worst self-editor so please forgive any errors you spot. Enjoy.**

**Song: "Losing My Way" Justin Timberlake, watch?v=CEuuA5flFzI**

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**Losing My Way**

Kate Beckett saunters off the over-crowded, sweaty dance floor holding her long dark hair off the nape of her slender neck to try and cool off. _Definitely need a hair cut. Might as well shave it and become a nun the way my love life's goin', _she thought.

She is not in the mood to be groped and manhandled by uncoordinated douche bags who think dancing is just a sociably acceptable excuse to dry hump her in public. Is it too much to ask for a man with some rhythm? She would much rather be doing some post-breakup sulking at home in a hot bath with a good book. But in the spirit of sisterhood she put on the dress, heels, and make-up for Lanie's sake, and is doing her best to play the part of peppy twenty something out on a girls night.

Kate spots Lanie in a vacated booth by the far end of the bar and slides and shuffles her way through the bodies to reach her. She drops her hand from her hair to navigate around a gyrating couple that seriously needs to get a room and swings her hips a bit to the beat with each step she takes off the dance floor. Kate's not really a fan of these kind of clubs unless she is looking to get utterly shit faced after a bad day on patrol. She usually likes something with jazz or some latin salsa to it.

Kate finally makes it to the booth and with a bit of a huff says, "Lanie, no offense, but this girls night out plan to cheer us up is a _catastrophe_. These guys are all groping, caveman pricks." She slides gracelessly into the circular bench and unceremoniously grabs and downs Lanie's vodka tonic.

"Well with an attitude like that, you may as well have a 'Fuck Off' sign stamped on your forehead." Lanie quips back with a glare at her empty drink glass in Kate's hands.

Kate offers her usual roll of the eyes in reply.

"C'mon Debbie, don't be such a _downer_! I know we are both coming out of a rough break up but we _need_ a night like this."

"Okay first off Lanie, a rough break up?" Kate purses her lips and adds a dubious arch of her eyebrow as she ticks off her evidence on each finger, "You dated 'Nick the Dick' for three weeks, he was terrible to you the whole time, you were miserable, and you didn't even like him."

Lanie shrugs her shoulders in faux innocence begging the question, _What do you expect from me?_

_"Seriously_? If that's your version of a 'rough break up' mine was the fucking Titanic of tragic break ups." Kate jokes, knowing Lanie well enough to rib on her choice in men.

"Yes he was a total ass hole, but sweet heavens Kate," Lanie bellows dramatically grabbing Kate's forearm theatrically, "The sex was unbelievable! I didn't nickname him Nick the Dick for nothing."

"Awh, gross." Kate says scrunching up her nose in distaste.

"Yeah but you still love me so your going to listen to me. We are looking at the positives tonight, we are single and I don't know about you girl, but I _know_ I look_ damn _sexy_,"_ Lanie states, sliding out of the booth to stare down menacingly at Kate._"So_ let's go back out on that dance floor, find us some unsuspecting fellas, and get under them to get over the assholes that are missing out on this!" She says, running the back of her hand down her body and rolling her hips to emphasize her curves.

Kate laughs a bit at her best friends antics and is so grateful for Lanie trying to cheer her up since Will left. So, with that in mind, Kate decides she can put in a little more effort into enjoying herself and turn off the "Fuck Off" vibe she apparently has been emanating.

Kate slaps her hands down on the table and gears up to make herself forget about how her two year relationship ended a month ago, forget how she went to being the 'next one to get engaged' to packing up her boyfriends shit in boxes and shipping them out to Boston _for him_..._Pathetic._ She is determined to forget how she just got caught looking over her mother's case file after hours, in a restricted area by her captain.

Kate is so indescribably sick and tired of having this shadow of sadness follow her every move. The weight of her father's addiction cementing her feet in cinder blocks every time Kate has to go over to her childhood home and clean her dad up. Those blocks drag her further into this angry, abyss as Jim spews empty apologies and promises. She's just so frustrated with feeling like a lost little girl. Alone. She wants her father back to _comfort her_, she wants her mother back to erase this loneliness.

But now its just all _fucked_ up.

She knows she has a problem with this obsessive drive to solve her mother's case. It has dictated her every move for the last five years and she is so deep down that rabbit hole that she has completely lost her way. And if she is being honest with herself, Will was just a temporary distraction. Their relationship was based on convenience and the wishful thinking of a future that Kate couldn't truly commit too when she has still refused to accept to the past that has defined her.

So tonight she wants to forget all that, be someone else. Find her way. Or at least a different one.

"Let me grab another round of drinks for us and I'll meet you out there." Kate offers Lanie as she needs a few moments to gather herself and bury her heart of sadness that feels like it's seeping out of the cracks in her armor.

Lanie gives her an intimidating look and waves a motherly finger in Kate's face. "You better have your ass out on that dance floor grinding up against some stranger in five minutes young lady!"

"Yes ma'am." Kate nods, desperately trying to hold back the laugh that wants out after Lanie's antics."

"I mean it girl, _don't make_ me come back here."

Kate just rolls her eyes and watches Lanie out on the prowl for a moment before she turns to the bar for a drink, a way to forget.

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**A/N: soooo you should prooobably review just to be awesomely polite ;)**


	4. Señorita

**A/N: Please review, hope you like. Let me know if you have any song requests or suggestions?**

**Song: "****Señorita" Justin Timberlake**

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**Señorita **

Rick stays glued to his bar stool, back leaning against the edge of the bar, and an empty glass being twirled by his dangling fingertips. He is completely stunned. Feels like he just got off the world's fastest roller coaster, or is coming down from the world's most intense high, or something that is the world's most, fastest, greatest, sexiest experience ever. Because just witnessing that woman walk sparked more inspiration in him than any other research, woman, or thought has ever produced.

A few moments pass before Rick gathers himself enough to shut his gaping mouth, blink the mysticism from his eyes, and wipe the flabbergasted enthrallment from his mind. He has to figure out a way to see that woman again, stare at her, talk to her, make love to her. He will take anything she is willing to offer, _and holy shit you are screwed buddy_.

_Game plan Rick, c'mon. You need a plan of action otherwise you'll probably trip and fall into her chest... oh that might be a good plan? No. No that's instant gratification. Your looking for long term pleasurable gratification here. _Rick's mind blabbers to himself.

Rick turns back around to face the bar, sitting up straight in attempt to find his footing after being carried off to heaven to see an angel..._Will that work? No. Stupid._

He runs through any and every pick up line that comes to mind, goes all the way back to his boarding school days. Though he thinks his old go-to: "I think we have chemistry together. No? It must be our body's chemistry," isn't going to fly in this situation. Especially because he is pretty certain that only worked once with a substitute teacher that let him get to third base. _Ah the glory days...Focus Rick!_

Every time he tries to come up with a game plan though Rick's eyes glaze over with the memory of her sensual movements. The thoughts of her enticing eyes move fast in his mind. Those bright brown eyes that held so much mystery. He felt her emotions by just observing her.

Rick settles on a simple, "Care to dance?" Simple and to the point. So he rolls his shoulders back, runs a hand through his thick hair, and starts to swivel to his left on the stool, only to be confronted with the object of his musings walking up next to him. Completely oblivious to him.

Rick stares.

She notices him essentially leering at her, and of course why wouldn't she. They are about a foot apart with everyone else's back turned. The woman gives a quick side glance to Rick and he can see her immediately categorize him as another guy objectifying her. But he is not, he knows that she deserves a crown just by the sight of her.

She is attempting to get the bar tenders attention, leaning over the bar, holding up a hand to flag him down. But the idiot, because that's what he has to be if he is ignoring the incantation of this woman's attention. She gives out an adorable little huff and sinks back down onto her heels, scanning out to her left for a waiter.

_Say something you idiot!_ Rick chides himself. _Game plan, go with the game plan. _

Rick clears his throat to grab her attention and when she turns her head to look at him, she is looking over her shoulder as her elbows are planted on the top of the bar. She looks completely coy and adorable and Rick has to know her. He absolutely has to.

He calmly pours his $220 whiskey into his cup and slides the glass over to the woman beside him. She doesn't move, only looks at it doubtfully then flicks her eyes back up to his and narrows them in inquisition. Up close, or maybe with this lighting, he sees the green striations that burst from her pupil and draw him in even more. Make him want to know the memories that she holds in the green and the sadness she carries in the dark chocolate brown.

Rick nudges the glass of his whiskey closer to her. Yet, she still just flicks her eyes down to stare at the amber liquid and then back up to meet his gaze.

"Like this..." Rick says grabbing the glass and taking a sip of it. This seems to be the secret code because she takes it out of his hands immediately after it leaves his lips and downs the whole thing. Yep, he is impressed and turned on.

"Hi." Rick says awkwardly, blinking once trying to erase the vestiges of arousal from his gaze after watching her work the alcohol down her throat and turn her body, her gorgeous, unreal body towards him. If he had known he'd meet such a beautiful girl he would have shaved and worn a fucking tuxedo if it would impress her. But no he goes with a wrinkled shirt, 5 o'clock shadow, and a fucking "Hi."

Idiot.

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**Review it and I'll post another one by tomorrow night!**


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